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Informist, Thursday, Sep 26, 2024

--COMEX Dec gold contract hits life high of $2,708.7 an oz

By Sandeep Sinha

MUMBAI – Futures contracts of gold on the COMEX scaled another lifetime high as the deteriorating geopolitical situation in West Asia boosted the metal's safe-haven appeal. However, the yellow metal pared some gains as firm US jobs data led to a recovery in the dollar.

At 2015 IST, the dollar index, which measures the strength of the greenback against a basket of major currencies, was flat at 100.95. The US Labour Department data released today showed that the number of citizens claiming jobless benefits fell by 4,000 to 218,000 in the week ended Saturday against analysts' expectation of 223,000 polled by Dow Jones.

"The geopolitical situation has deteriorated so much in West Asia which is leading to safe-haven buying in gold," Chirag Sheth, principal consultant at Metal Focus said.

At 2018 IST, the most-active October GOLD contract on the MCX was up 0.1% at 75,396 rupees per 10 gm. The most active December contract on COMEX was 0.1% higher at $2,688.1 per ounce, after touching a new lifetime high of $2,708.7 per ounce earlier in the day. 

The highest call open interest for gold was at the 77,000-rupee strike price, suggesting a bullish view, while the highest put open interest was at the 73,000-rupee strike for the Nov 26 gold contract.

On Wednesday, gold holdings of SPDR Gold Trust, the world's largest gold-backed exchange-traded fund, remained steady at 877.12 tn. The fund has a market value of $75.03 bln.

SILVER prices rose, taking cues from the COMEX, and on the back of firm trends in gold and industrial metals. "Silver prices in the key London spot market breached a 12-year high of $32.50 an oz today. A similar rally was witnessed in the domestic futures markets as well, with prices hovering above 94,000-rupee-a-kg levels," Hareesh V., head of commodities, Geojit Financial Services, said in a note. Escalating geopolitical tensions, a surprise US rate cut, lifetime peak gold prices and the recent China economic stimulus measures bolstered the appeal of silver, he said.

At 2025 IST, the most-active December contract of silver on MCX was up 1.1% at 93,091 rupees per kg. The same-month contract on COMEX was 1.4% higher at $32.45 per ounce.

The MCX Bulldex, an index that tracks the real-time performance of gold and silver futures on the MCX, was up 120 points at 19000 points. As of 2030 IST, the October and December gold contracts recorded turnovers of 47.02 bln rupees and 44.61 bln rupees, respectively, on MCX. The December and March contracts of silver saw turnovers of 75.96 bln rupees and 2.80 bln rupees, respectively.

The spot gold-silver ratio, also known as the Mint ratio, fell to 82.63, indicating that gold underperformed silver. The ratio measures the ounces of silver required to buy an ounce of gold. The ratio was 83.28 on Wednesday.

Outlook for the rest of the session:

--MCX gold seen at 75,350–76,050 rupees per 10 gm

--COMEX gold seen at $2,671.00–$2,714.00 an oz

--MCX silver seen at 92,500-94,000 rupees per kg

--COMEX silver seen at $31.80-$31.94 an oz

End

US$1 = 83.64 rupees

IST, or Indian Standard Time, is five-and-a-half hours ahead of GMT

Edited by Tanima Banerjee

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